The Orbs of Darkness
by smile-clarenet
Summary: Sequel to A Different Past. It's Harry's second year, and students are being taken from within the walls of Hogwarts. Who could be behind it all, and why do they keep leaving cryptic notes when a student is taken? ABANDONED.
1. The Family Grows

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I am merely playing in a world that JK Rowling created._

Author's Note: This story continues on from A Different Past. It is not necessary for you to read that story first, but I would recommend it for the later chapters. Without further ado, here is the story...

IMPORTANT: I regret to say this story has been abandoned. I have been stuck on chapter five for a long time. I was never very happy with how it turned out to begin with. Feel free to read it, but don't hold your breath when it comes to updates.

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**The Orbs of Darkness**

_Chapter One: The Family Grows_

Lily Potter glanced at the clock sitting on the mantelpiece for what felt like the millionth time that day. If those boys didn't hurry up they'd be late for their appointment. In the few weeks since they'd almost lost their son, James and Lily had done a lot of talking. Harry had seemed to retreat into himself a little, and was quite unwilling to talk to any of them. Not even Albus Dumbledore could get through to the boy. They'd decided that he might be lonely. Since reaching that decision they had decided to adopt another child. They had arranged to collect her from a Wizard orphanage at three pm; already it was quarter to three. She moved to the bottom of the stairs.

"We're going to be late!" She called up to James and Harry.

* * *

In his room Harry heard his mother calling up that they were in danger of being late.

"Don't see why I have to go." He muttered darkly, reaching for his trainers. "Why can't I just stay here with Sirius and Remus?"

Ever since he had returned from Hogwarts nearly three weeks ago his mood had been rather dark. He had no idea what made him feel that way, but a lot of the time wished he didn't. He hated getting into arguments with anyone, let alone his parents. As a result he had begun to avoid being in the same room as even one other person, but still the tension in the house was noticeable.

* * *

Lily paced the hall impatiently. She heard footsteps on the stairs, turning to see James arriving in the hall.

"Where's Harry?"

"He's coming."

"I hope this helps him."

"I think we're all hoping that, Lily." James wrapped an arm around his wife's shoulders as Harry appeared at the top of the stairs.

* * *

Ten minutes later they were walking out of Diagon Alley into Muggle London. It wasn't far to the orphanage, only a fifteen-minute walk, but they were running very late by now. Lily kept glancing at her watch and walking quicker, even James with his long stride had trouble keeping up with her. This left James to keep urging Harry along. He still had no idea what could have caused his son's sudden change of personality. What was even more unusual was that Albus Dumbledore didn't know either, nor did Madam Pomphrey, the healer at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which was where Harry had spent the last year. Though for almost half of it he'd been in the Hospital Wing. To begin with it had been the Dragon's Hand of Ice curse, then he'd had a run in with the wizard that called himself Lord Voldemort. _We've still got to find Snape and get rid of that curse._ James thought to himself as he looked over his shoulder at his son.

* * *

"Hurry up, you two." Lily stood at the top of a short flight of stairs by a large, timber door.

James placed a hand on Harry's arm, pulling him the stairs behind him, but not before he'd seen the scowl on the boy's face.

They had first met Stephanie in the first week of the holiday. She was a year younger than Harry, and very bright for her age. Harry had been reminded of Hermione, except Stephanie was ten times as annoying. He didn't have any more time to ponder as the heavy door swung open, revealing a grey-haired witch on the other side.

"Mrs Potter?" She enquired.

"Yes. We've come to take Stephanie home with us."

"Ah yes, If you'd care to wait through there." The witch indicated to a closed door off the hallway.

Harry followed his parents into the small, high-ceilinged room. He perched on the edge of a lumpy armchair while his father stood by the grimy window and his mother by the blackened fireplace. Harry got time impression this room was not used very often, at least, not for a long period of time. As the minutes passed he found himself staring around the room, first it was at the crack in the plaster near the ceiling, then it was at the burnt patch on the carpet by his mother's feet.

* * *

Finally, after a very long wait, Stephanie appeared in the doorway with a large trunk. Harry glanced at her, but refused to hold her gaze. From the moment he had first seen the girl that was to be his sister, he had taken a dislike to her. Maybe it was her resemblance to one Draco Malfoy. While he'd never had a direct run-in with Malfoy, yet, he had based quite a level of detest on the blond Slytherin, mostly from what he had seen the boy doing to others around him.

Stephanie's gaze passed over Harry as though he wasn't there. Her eyes fell upon the red-hair witch standing beside the bespectacled wizard. This wasn't the sort of family she would have chosen to go with, but anything was better than the dump they called the orphanage.

"Are you ready to go, Stephanie."

The wizard spoke to her. If she remembered correctly his name was James, and the witch on his arm was called Lily. She'd not spoken to the boy at all, she just hope he was one of them.

* * *

Her parents had died when she was seven. They had known they would be sending her to Hogwarts, seeing as that was the school that they had both been in. Her mother had been in Slytherin, and her father in Ravenclaw. She would be happy with either of those. She didn't want to go into Gryffindor, perhaps because her mother had been against the whole lot of them, calling most of them 'blood traitors'.

"Yeah." She replied in as few words as possible as usual. She liked to keep to herself.

* * *

Harry scowled at her back as they headed back to Diagon Alley to Floo home. Of all the kids his parents could have chosen, they had to take this one. He could see she would be suited to Slytherin. That was all he needed, a sister in Gryffindor's enemy house.

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Author's Note: There you go, chapter 1 of The Orbs of Darkness. I have this story planned out, but I'm encountering an annoying lack of ability to write anything at the moment. Rather than force chapters and have them poorly written, I'm going to wait for inspiration to strike, though I don't know when that will be. You'll just have to bear with me on this one. I'll get the next chapter online as soon as I can.


	2. Arguments and Questions

**Author's Note: I've had some very intersting responses to the first chapter of this story. All I can ask is that you give this story a chance. That wasn't the best opening I've done for a story, but I do need another character in it. You'll find out why later. I've tried to have some explanation in this chapter, so I hope that answers a few questions that some of you have. I'd just like to say thanks to the people that reviewed the first chapter, I appreciate any feedback I get, and try to make imporvements based on it.**

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Chapter Two: Arguments and Questions

Harry lay on his back on his bed. The summer sunshine made his room quite cheery, or would have done if it weren't for the frustrated atmosphere. In the week since Stephanie had become his sister, he had gotten into more arguments than he had thought possible. She had found out that Hermione was a friend of Harry's, and that she was a muggle-born. That argument had been so bad all four adults had been forced to get between them before either one lost it completely and did under-age magic. Harry had spent the rest of the day hiding in his room, frequently cursing under his breath.

Someone knocked loudly on his door. "Harry."

He let out a sigh of relief as he recognised Sirius's voice.

"Yeah."

"Your mum told me to tell you to come down for dinner." Sirius stuck his head around the door. "She tried to send Stephanie but – "

"Let me guess, she refused." Harry interrupted.

"Got it in one, kid."

Harry sighed.

"The feeling's mutual." Sirius commented, opening the door a little wider.

"She hates me because I'm friends with Hermione."

Sirius raised an eyebrow at Harry. "I wouldn't have thought something like that would bother you."

"Yeah, well it does. What do my friends have to do with this?"

"Maybe she's assuming because you have a friend who is a muggle-born you won't like her."

Harry frowned. "Of course I don't like her. She insulted my friend without even meeting her. She's judging me because I'm a bloody Gryffindor and have friends that are either related directly to muggles or support muggles and muggle-borns. The way she is she'll get into Slytherin without the hat even having to decide."

"So she's a Slytherin in a house full of Gryffindors. It's not that much different from what I had to put up with." Sirius said. "I was a Gryffindor in a house full of Slytherins who didn't want me there. Just give her a chance, Harry."

Harry scowled at his godfather's retreating back. "Since when did you become so serious?" He muttered. He had only ever known a Sirius that loved to have fun and take a laid back approach to life.

* * *

"Could she be any more difficult?"

Sirius paused just behind the door as Lily's voice drifted out to him.

"What do you mean?"

"I get the impression she doesn't want to be here."

"She's probably just unsettled, she'll come around."

Sirius thought James sounded more confident than he probably felt.

"I know we said we wanted another child, but…I can't help feeling this is wrong. I think we rushed into this. She's hardly going to help us be a proper family if we're going to be arguing with each other even more is she?"

"Things will work out, Lily."

"Do you think Harry would be happier if he saw Ron and Hermione again?"

"I don't know, Lily. If he's lonely he could spend time getting to know Stephanie. Maybe Albus has an answer."

Sirius looked at the floor uncomfortably. He'd not been around when James and Lily had been discussing family issues, but he did know the professor was just as short of ideas and theories as they were. He turned slowly and went in search of Lupin.

* * *

He found Lupin in the study on the second floor. He apparently hadn't heard the latest argument; either that or he was trying to avoid getting into any.

"Hey, Moony."

Lupin looked around. "All right, Sirius, what's up?"

"How is it you can always see right through people?"

"Only my friends, Padfoot. Maybe it's the wolf in me." Lupin replied with a grin. "So what do you want?"

"You know when James and Lily were talking about getting another kid?"

"Yeah."

"Why did they decide they wanted another one?"

"Lily wanted someone similar to Harry's own age, so he could have someone to talk to, James wanted someone that would encourage them to be a family more often, well, they both did. You know they're always going off on something for the Order?"

"Yeah, leaving Harry by himself. Did it have anything to do with Voldemort?"

"Well, he's not been around since he met Harry has he? Maybe they feel it's safer to have another child?" Lupin shrugged. "I know they'll take good care of both Harry and Stephanie though."

The two men fell into silence for a while. Sirius sat on the sofa while Lupin returned to looking at the parchment on the desk.

"Moony?"

"Yes?"

"You know Stephanie?"

"Not personally, but go on."

"Do you get the impression she and Harry don't like each other?"

"I wouldn't expect Harry to get on with her straight away. He's used to having us four to himself, now he's got to share us with another person."

* * *

Harry stared out the open window into the garden below. The garden, like the house, had a number of charms on it to protect them, but he rarely used it. He was watching Stephanie from a safe distance, trying to make out her personality yet again. He didn't want to think of her as a Slytherin, even if she did act like one a lot. She was sitting in the middle of the lawn with her back to the house. Harry couldn't see what she was staring at and wasn't sure he wanted to know. They'd managed to get through the last week without too many arguments, though there were still a lot of them. As the week had gone by with fewer arguments each day, Harry had begun to find he was curious about the girl that was now his sister. They still didn't get on well, but things were beginning to settle down more.

* * *

Stephanie deliberately sat with her back to the house. She knew Harry had been watching her whenever she sat out here. She wasn't sure shy she chose to sit in the middle of the grass, but she liked sitting here. It was exposed, but somehow she felt protected. It would be difficult for anyone to creep up on her without her sharp eyes picking the person, or creature, out. She pulled a small mirror out of her pocket and angled it so she could see behind her without someone noticing what she was doing.

_Still watching me. What is his problem? Why does everyone stare at me?_ She sighed and dropped the mirror. She had noticed the strange scar on his forehead the other day. She'd been tempted to ask how he'd gotten it, but had quickly changed her mind. _He'll probably start arguing with me again._ She pulled her wand out of her pocket. She'd turned eleven last week and had received her Hogwarts letter. James had taken her to Diagon Alley to get her school things. She had spent the entire morning wishing she could have gone with Lily; all he did was talk about Quidditch and how great the teams at Hogwarts were. She'd then spent the afternoon blocking his voice out. _Not long until I can get away from them. Should be enough people at Hogwarts for me to get away from Harry, though it's not like he actually cares.

* * *

_

**Author's Note: Like I said before, just give this a chance, I know what I'm doing, at least I think I do. If there was something in this chapter, or the previous chapter, that you didn't like, let me know what it was and I'll try to either explain why I did it, or change it so it makes more sense. I know some of the characters seemed ooc in the last chapter, especially Harry, but there is a reasoning behind this. All will be explained, eventually.**


	3. The Second Year Begins

Chapter Three: The Second Year Begins

Harry stared gloomily out the train window. He was alone in his compartment, having fallen out with his friends before they'd even set foot on the Hogwarts Express. It had started when he'd told Stephanie to 'go and find some Slytherins to sit with, you'll fit right in'.

"_How can you say that to your own sister?" Hermione looked appalled._

"_She's not my sister." Harry muttered in reply, but Hermione had heard him clearly._

"_Oh you're nice." Hermione huffed, stalking off after the blonde head of Stephanie._

"_Well done, mate." Ron muttered._

"_What? She's not my sister."_

"_You're bloody luck you don't live with me. I'd never let you get away with saying something like that about your family." Ron said, and followed Hermione._

Harry had gotten onto the train alone after saying a short goodbye to his parents, and had remained alone. He suspected Hermione was sitting with Stephanie, maybe trying to comfort the girl, but Ron was more likely to be either with his twin brothers or with Seamus, Dean and Neville, their fellow second year Gryffindors.

* * *

"Hey, mind if I join you?" A young red-haired girl stood in the open doorway.

"No." Harry glanced at her as she entered.

"You look lonely." Ginny Weasley commented as she sat down. "Where's Ron?"

"No idea. I'm not exactly his favourite person right now."

"What did you do?"

"Only spoke to my sister." Harry decided not to go into details; he was enjoying the company and the respite from the loneliness.

"You must have said something bad for Ron to abandon you. Of course he's pretty pissed off at you for not writing to him all summer."

"I can't see why. He never wrote to me either."

Ginny looked confused. "But he did write to you. I saw him sending you and Hermione at least a dozen letters each. Hermione received all of hers.

"I never got any. "Harry too looked puzzled. "I've not had any letters from either of them all summer."

The two fell into silence for a while, neither knowing what else to say, but both searching for something that they could talk about.

"So what's your sister like?" Ginny asked him, finally breaking the awkward silence between them.

"You don't want to know why I've never mentioned her before?"

"I guessed your mum and dad took her in over the summer. I never saw her last September."

"Good guess." Harry looked impressed, but it faded quickly. "We don't get on. She seems to have a Slytherin point of view."

"I guess you wouldn't get on too well then. Hermione will need some luck if she's attempting to speak to her."

* * *

Harry spent the rest of the train journey in Ginny's company. He knew her quite well from having been friends with Ron for so many years. When the train pulled into Hogsmeade station, Ginny had to join her fellow first years for their traditional journey across the lake, while Harry and the rest of the school headed out towards the carriages waiting in the street outside.

* * *

Harry greeted Hagrid enthusiastically, said he'd see Ginny at the castle and headed for the street. He clambered into the first empty carriage and was shortly joined by Neville and Dean.

"Ron's kind of annoyed with you." Dean informed him. "I think he spent half the journey complaining about you and the other half talking about Quidditch while he played chess with Seamus."

Harry shrugged and looked away as they began to move towards the castle.

* * *

The students arrived in waves as each carriage arrived. Harry hung back as the groups headed into the Great Hall. He didn't want to sit along at the Gryffindor table, and he didn't want to see Stephanie be sorted into Slytherin. He was afraid that the serpent house would make her dark like so many others before her. Instead he turned away from the doors and up the marble staircase alone and unseen. He didn't have the password to the Gryffindor Tower, so bypassed the portrait hole and made for the seventh floor.

* * *

Hermione looked up and down the long house table as they first years entered the hall.

"Have you seen Harry?" She turned to Ron who was seated beside her.

"No."

"He should be here. He should be around to see his sister being sorted." She picked out the blonde head of Stephanie beside Ginny's vibrant red.

"After the way he treated her this morning? I'm not surprised he's not here."

"There's a reason behind everything, Ron." Hermione rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"You'd never catch me treating Ginny like that."

"Let it go, Ron."

"You forgive people way too easily, you know that?"

"Honestly. I'm not saying what he did was right, and I certainly don't agree with it. I think maybe he's still unsettled after what happened last June. Having someone new in the family can't help much; especially if you don't get on to begin with."

* * *

Stephanie looked around the hall nervously. At each table the uniforms were slightly different. One was the red and gold that her brother had been packing in his trunk, another was yellow and black, then there was blue and silver, and finally the green and silver that she recognised as Slytherin.

The Slytherin bunch looked tough and burly. She began to hope she'd follow in her father's footsteps and take the blue and silver of Ravenclaw.

One of the teachers stood at the front of the room and began to call people forwards one at a time. She watched as the old, patched hat split them four ways.

"Potter, Stephanie!"

She bit her lip and stepped forwards. She perched on the edge of the three-legged stool and waited for the hat to make its decision, while all the time thinking 'not Slytherin'.

After what felt like ten minutes she heard the hat shout "Ravenclaw!" and applause broke out, louder at the Ravenclaw table than any other. She removed the hat and went to join the house that she would now spend seven years with.

* * *

**Author's Note: This is probably the best chapter of the lot so far. The pace should slow down a little now they're at Hogwarts.**


	4. Sorted

**Author's Note: It's been a long time since I last updated this story, so I can only hope that the wait was worthwhile. I'm not happy with this chapter myself...actually I'm not happy with the story either, not in its current state. It's probably going to change dramatically at some point, though I don't know when yet.**

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**The Orbs of Darkness**

**Chapter Four: Sorted**

It was early when Stephanie awoke the following morning. She had followed her father into the Ravenclaw house, and was now determined to prove that she deserved to be there. She knew Harry had assumed she would go into Slytherin, she had seen it in his eyes. The accusatory glare was enough for her to keep her distance over the summer, though she found she wanted to talk to him, just to keep from being so lonely. Her new parents were always busy with something or other, often leaving herself and Harry with the friends they lived with. Often she had wondered why they had adopted her. Clearly they didn't have the time for Harry, so why get another child? Perhaps they wanted Harry to have someone close to his own age to talk to…if that was the case, what they wanted and what was were two completely different things.

She glanced out the window as she pulled her new robes on. These robes bore the colours of Ravenclaw. Hopefully her brother would notice the blue and silver of her tie and collar of her jumper. Maybe then he would stop being quite so hostile towards her.

The sky outside was a beautiful, clear blue, promising a good day for the weather. It was still too early to go down to breakfast, so she made for the common room instead. There she plucked a slim book off a shelf and settled down to read until breakfast time.

* * *

Harry stared at the clear sky from his bed. He'd slept badly for his first night back at Hogwarts. Part of him wanted to know which house Stephanie had gone into, the other part was sure it had been Slytherin. Ron had resolutely ignored him for most of the day before. Harry hadn't been able to face going to the Welcoming Feast and the Sorting of new students. He rolled on to his back. Sighing quietly he gave up on getting any more sleep, deciding instead to get his belongings ready for the day ahead.

He expected the common room to be empty when he emerged from the dormitories, but Hermione was sitting by the fire. She looked over at him from her seat.

"Couldn't you sleep either?"

"No." Harry joined her.

"Stephanie really isn't that bad, Harry. You should give her a chance."

"I'll give her a chance when she gives me one."

Hermione rolled her eyes and stared back into the fire again.

They sat in silence for a while. Eventually other students began to arrive in the common room and head out to breakfast in small groups. Harry and Hermione joined the first few that headed down to the Great Hall for an early breakfast.

* * *

Harry automatically glanced at the Slytherin table as he sat down, but he couldn't see the blonde head of Stephanie, only that of one Draco Malfoy. About halfway through the meal he spotted Ron enter the Hall, but he sat with Fred and George. Ginny seemed to have found a few people to talk to, for she was laughing about something with them. He quietly returned to his breakfast, though not really feeling hungry.

Hermione prodded him uncomfortably in his ribs.

"What?"

She nodded towards the doors. He followed her gaze as Stephanie walked down the hall between the Ravenclaw and Slytherin tables. He saw Malfoy trying to engage her in conversation, and expected her to sit with him, but she turned and sat with the Ravenclaws.

"Why's she sitting there for?"

"Honestly, Harry. She was sorted into Ravenclaw." Hermione scowled, noting the mildly surprised expression on Harry's face. Luckily Professor McGonagall appeared at that moment and stopped Hermione from remarking further. Instead she studied the timetable she had just been given.

* * *

Stephanie glanced over at the Gryffindor table as she entered the hall. Harry was watching her, along with the bushy haired girl from the train. She headed for a seat further along the Ravenclaw table, proud that she didn't have to wear green and silver uniform.

"Hey babe." A silky voice drawled from somewhere on her right. She ignored it. "What's up? Don't want to talk to me."

Stephanie fixed a glare on the white-blonde boy. "I don't talk to snakes."

He raised an eyebrow, but didn't reply. She continued along the table a bit further to a free seat, dropping lightly onto the bench and resting her head in her hands. _Way to insult your real mother._ The voice in her head sounded remarkably like a female version of the boy that had just tried to chat her up. She reached for the plate of bacon as the deputy-headmistress walked along the table handing out timetables. She took hers, but didn't bother to look at it until she'd finished eating. She had Herbology first thing, with the Slytherins. Something the girl on the train had said came back to her. _'Watch out for the Slytherin lot, they can be pretty nasty if you're not one of them.'_ Evidently the girl had known she wouldn't be going into Slytherin, though how she had known was beyond Stephanie.

* * *

**Author's Note: Like I said, I'm not happy with this chapter. If anyone can give me a few tips I'd be really grateful. I do listen to the people who send me reviews because I really want to make my stories better.**


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